mertz



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

E. MBRTZ.

APPARATUS FOR MOISTENING AIR. No. 424,652. Patented Apr. 1, 1890.

. INVENTOR:

N PETERS. Fhulo-Lilhcgnpher, Wuhmgten. D, c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EMILE MERTZ, OF BASLE, SIVITZERLAND.

APPARATUS FOR MOISTENING AIR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 424,652, dated April 1, 1890.

Application filed November 24a 1888. Serial No. 291,749. (No model.) Patented in Belgium September 17, 1888, No- 83,288, and in England September 21, 1888, No. 13,666.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMILE MERTZ, a citizen of the French Republic, residing in Basle, Switzerland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Moistening Air, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is the subject of a patent in Belgium, No. 83,288, dated September 17, 1888, and of a patent in England, No. 13,666, dated September 21, 1888.

The object of this invention is an apparatus for moistening and purifying the air of spinning-rooms, malting-rooms, boats, the auditoriums of theaters, &c., and for workshops, habitations, and other places.

In my new apparatus water under pressure is passed through spraying nozzles, from which it escapes in the form of groups of fine jets which are directed against stepped disks, and are thereby atomized or divided into a very fine spray which mingles with a current of air which is drawn into the room by aventilator-fan and is transformed thereby into a kind of mist of cool Vapor or watery vapor in the vesicular state. This vapor is distributed into the upper part of the room from all sides of the apparatus. The spraying-nozzles are of special construction, causing the jets of water to issue in groups. Each nozzle is constructed of an internally-conical shell, in which is fixed a plug the periphery of which is formed with longitudinal tapering grooves or channels terminating in capillary conduits, these grooves being formed by a saw-kerf or an engraving-tool, so that they form with the enveloping-shell more minute openings than it would be possible to obtain by drilling. This conical grooved plug may be taken out of its inclosing-shell, which enables the capillary conduits to be cleaned with great facility by the simple use of a brush, in order to remove any obstructions due to impurities in the water.

My apparatus is so constructed that it can be suspended from the ceiling of the room the atmosphere of which it is to moisten and purify. Its ventilating-fan is mounted, by preference, on a vertical arbor or shaft driven by a turbine wheel which is rotated by water under pressure. The spraying-nozzles and the atomizing-disks are placed between the fan and the turbine and underneath the former, in order that the turbine shall ofier no obstruction to the air set in motion by the fan nor to the spray produced by the nozzles and atomizing-disks. This arrangement has also the advantage of permitting any drops of water which may not be finely enough atomized to fall immediately into an annular tray placed at the lower part of the apparatus without being carried away by the fan and without ever arriving in contact with the wings thereof. The drops which thus fall back into the tray at the bottom bring down therewith all particles of dust and impurities in suspension in the air, and consequently render wholesome the airof the room in which the apparatus is arranged.

The atomizing-disks may be moved at will closer to or farther from the nozzles, which permits of varying the extent of cont-act of the spray and the air drawn through the apparatus, and thus imparting to the air a greater or less degree of humidity. A beater, placed immediately beneath the fan and participating in its rotary movement, throws laterally the drops of water which may have risen above the atomizing-disks in such manner as to facilitate the return of these drops to the tray underneath. A conical flange suspended over the tray at the bottom collects the drops of water which are condensed immediately at the outlet of the apparatus and conducts them int-o an annular tray. The turbine is placed in the center of this tray, and the waste water from it is joined by that draining from the tray and conducted away beneath the apparatus.

In order to prevent the introduction of impurities into the spraying-nozzles and into the turbine, the pipe for supplying water un der pressure is provided with a filter formed of a tube or muff of superposed washers of felt, held on a preferably metallic tube. This filter may be taken apart readily for the cleaning of the felts which arrest the impurities.

The construction and operation of my new apparatus may be more fully understood from the following description with reference to the annexed drawings, wherein- Figure 1 is averticalmid-section of the entire apparatus. Fig. 2 is a plan thereof, partly in horizontal section, the general direction of which is indicated by line 2 2 in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical mid-section of one of the spraying-nozzles on an enlarged scale. Fig. 4 is a plan thereof on the same scale as Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is an elevation of the plug removed from the nozzle. Fig. 6 is a transverse section of the plug.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, my apparatus is constructed with a cylindrical shell or casing A, in the center of which is mounted a vertical arbor or shaft B, carrying at its upper end the ventilating-fan C, and immediately beneath it the beater C, having radial arms. Near the middle of the arbor is fixed a water-wheel D, having tangential blades or any other kind of turbine wheel whatever. In order to insure the regular lubrication of the arbor, its journal turns in a cup E filled with oil.

ater under pressure is conducted to the apparatus by a tube F, provided with a throttle-valve G, and after passing through the filter H enters the branch conduits I and J. The conduit I conducts the water to the spray ing-nozzles K K, while the conduit J conducts it to the nozzle, from which it is directed against the blades of the turbine wheel D. The jet of water striking tangentially against the blades of this wheel sets it in rapid rotation, and consequently rotates the screw-fan C and the beater C.

The filter H is formed of a perforated metallic tube m, on which are placed successive washers a a, of felt, held between a flange Z), formed on the bottom end of the tube m and a movable disk 17. The tube m, which carries the filtering-felts, is slipped over a tube a.

This filter may be readily cleaned by simply taking off the screw-cap c, which permits of removing the disks of felt in order to clean them by slipping out the perforated tube at ,over the inner tube a. The latter tube prevent-s the impurities which have accumulated in the lower part of the filter from flowing out into the apparatus while the filter is thus taken apart.

In lieu of superposed washers of felt there may be employed for this filter one or several. felt tubes or muffs, or both superposed washers and one or several muffs may be employed together.

As shown in Figs. 3 to 6, each spraying-nozzle K comprises a shell d, conical in its interior,

Within which is fixed a plug 6, having a conical portion fitting the conical interior of the shell, and in which conical portions are formed channels f f. These channels have the form of V-grooves in ci'osssection, as shown in Fig. 6, and taper outwardly toward the face of the nozzle, and being so reduced at their termination as to form, when the plug is in place, capillary conduits f. These channels are formed by a milling, sawing, or planing tool. The water under pressure on reaching the nozzles K K is discharged violently from the orifices of the capillary conduits f in the form of groups or bundles of very fine jets. These jets of water are thrown against the stepped disks R R, whereby they are pulverized or atomized into an extremely fine spray, and the warm air that the fan 0 draws from the room around the lower circumference g of the casing A encounters this fine spray and transforms it into a sort of cool vapor in the vesicular state, which is then blown out by the fan. The fan 0 thus blows through the annular opening h and around the entire circumference of the upper part of the casing a mixture of fresh air and of watery vapor or mist. The drops of water which are too heavy to be carried up by the fan, as well as those which have been thrown out laterally by the beater O fall from the interior of the casing A into an annular tray M. In order to collect the drops which form at the outlet of the opening h, a conical ring or flange N is arranged above the tray M, on which fall all the drops which come from condensation at the outlet of the apparatus. The water which is collected in the tray M includes all the drops that the air which has traversed the apparatus contained, and it drains away along with the water escaping from the turbine wheel D through the passage 01 into the waste-pipe O.

The upper partof the casing A is covered by an inverted conical cap P.

The apparatus is suspended from the ceiling by a column Q.

The number of nozzles K K may be varied at will, according to the dimensions of the apparatus.

The atomizing-disks R R are adapted to be mounted on a common support m, which may be raised or lowered at will by a screw S, in order to vary the spacing apart of the disks R R from the nozzles K K, in order to provide for regulating the degree to which the air shall be moistened. The support m is mounted on a nut engaged by the thread of this screw S, so that as the screw is turned the nut is propelled up or down. The screw is made with a similar thread beneath the apparatus, which causes another nut r to travel up or down against the scale 0* in order to indicate the height at which the disks R R stand.

,I may construct my improved apparatus of any metal or material, and aecording'to any shape or dimensions desired.

ICC

It must not be understood from the detailed description of the apparatus thatI have herein given that my invention is necessarily limited to the several details described, as it is susceptible of considerable modification, not merely in matters of construction and arrangement, but also in the combinations of the several elements described, which may be varied in many ways.

I claim as my invention the following defined improvements and combinations, substantially as hereinbefore specified, viz

l. A casing through which a current of air is passed, a rotating arbor in said casing, a ventilating-fan within said casing, and a spraying-nozzle beneath the fan arranged to direct a jet of spray into the current of air, in combination with a stationary atomizingdisk beneath said fan, against which said jet of spray is directed, and a beater composed of radial arms carried by said arbor between said atomizingdisk and said fan, substantially as set forth.

2. In an apparatus for moisteni n g air, a easing through which a current of air is passed,

and a plurality of j et-nozzles within said casing arranged to direct jets of spray into the current of air, in combination with a plurality of connected and adjustable atomizingdisks located within said casing, each of said witnesses.

EMILE MERTZ. Witnesses:

AMAND Rirrun, PHILIPPE Giiss. 

